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By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
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Moscow has said that it will not abandon the international treaty that bans nuclear weapons testing, unless the United States resumes test explosions first, a Russian newspaper has reported.
Russia was among the 185 signatories to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996, which bans atomic weapons test explosions. The agreement has not formally come into force because eight nations that possess nuclear technology, including the U.S., have not signed and ratified it.
Although not officially ratified, most of the world's nuclear armed states are observing nuclear testing moratoria. In September 2021, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged the eight countries yet to ratify the treaty to do so "without delay."
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On Tuesday, news outlet RBC reported a Russian foreign ministry statement that said the U.S. had taken advantage of the benefits of an international nuclear weapons monitoring system "but at the same time, stubbornly refuses to ratify this treaty. This cannot continue indefinitely."
RBC asked the foreign ministry under what conditions Moscow would be ready to resume nuclear weapons tests and was told that this would only occur if the U.S. conducted them first.
"One should refrain from any provocations and speculations about the prospects for resuming nuclear tests in relation to Russia," the ministry said, according to RBC.
Earlier in August, the newspaper Kommersant reported on how government agencies in Russia had been discussing Moscow's withdrawal from the treaty because of the U.S. stance, although no decision had yet been made.
The Kommersant report on August 3 came two days before the 60th anniversary of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, under which Moscow agreed with Washington and London to ban atomic tests in the atmosphere, in space and under water.
Russian foreign affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had criticized the U.S. for not ratifying the 1996 treaty saying that "unfortunately, for more than a quarter of a century, the CTBT, which was intended…to permanently stop all types of nuclear tests, has not entered into force."
Zakharova condemned the "destructive and irresponsible behavior of the United States, which officially refused to ratify the treaty in 2018 and continues to adhere to this position."
When contacted by Newsweek for a response, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said in a statement: "The United States continues to observe our zero-yield nuclear explosive testing moratorium and calls on all states possessing nuclear weapons to declare or maintain such a moratorium."
Executive director of the Arms Control Association, Daryl G. Kimball said that although not formally ratified, the CTBT "is one of the most successful agreements in the long history of nuclear arms control and nonproliferation."
"Most of the nuclear-armed states that have not signed or not ratified the CTBT, including China, India, Israel, and Pakistan, are observing nuclear testing moratoria," he wrote in the latest issue of the journal Arms Control Today.
However he said the de facto global nuclear testing moratorium cannot be taken for granted.
"China, Russia, and the United States continue to engage in weapons-related activities at their former nuclear testing sites," he wrote.
Update 8/30/23, 4:12 a.m. ET: This article was updated with a response from the U.S. State Department.
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